| Year: | 1968 |
| Competition: | New South Wales Rugby Football League |
| Teams: | 12 |
| Count: | 18th |
| Mpcount: | 14th |
| Matches: | 136 |
| Points: | 4027 |
| Attendance: | 1,894,627 |
| Top Point Scorer: | Eric Simms (212) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Stan Gorton (22) |
| Player Of The Year: | Terry Hughes (Rothmans Medal) |
| Prevseason Link: | 1967 NSWRFL season |
| Prevseason Year: | 1967 |
| Nextseason Link: | 1969 NSWRFL season |
| Nextseason Year: | 1969 |
The 1968 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 61st season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Twelve teams, including six Sydney-based foundation teams and another six from around Sydney competed for the J.J. Giltinan Shield and the WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between South Sydney and Manly-Warringah.
The 1968 season's Rothmans Medallist was Cronulla-Sutherland's Terry Hughes.
The Balmain club narrowly missed out on a place in the top four, which was made up of South Sydney, Manly-Warringah, St. George and Eastern Suburbs.
| width=20 abbr="Position×" | width=175 | Team | width=20 abbr="Played" | Pld | width=20 abbr="Won" | W | width=20 abbr="Drawn" | D | width=20 abbr="Lost" | L | width=20 abbr="Points for" | PF | width=20 abbr="Points against" | PA | width=20 abbr="Points difference" | PD | width=20 abbr="Points" | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Sydney | 22 | 16 | 0 | 6 | 394 | 271 | +123 | 32 | ||||||||||
| 2 | Manly-Warringah | 22 | 15 | 1 | 6 | 379 | 282 | +97 | 31 | ||||||||||
| 3 | St. George | 22 | 13 | 3 | 6 | 416 | 320 | +96 | 29 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Eastern Suburbs Roosters | 22 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 362 | 274 | +88 | 29 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Balmain | 22 | 14 | 0 | 8 | 393 | 284 | +109 | 28 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Parramatta | 22 | 12 | 1 | 9 | 308 | 284 | +24 | 25 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Western Suburbs | 22 | 12 | 0 | 10 | 328 | 279 | +49 | 24 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Penrith | 22 | 11 | 0 | 11 | 298 | 352 | -54 | 22 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Canterbury-Bankstown | 22 | 9 | 1 | 12 | 259 | 301 | -42 | 19 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Cronulla-Sutherland | 22 | 6 | 0 | 16 | 259 | 405 | -146 | 12 | ||||||||||
| 11 | North Sydney | 22 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 259 | 388 | -129 | 8 | ||||||||||
| 12 | Newtown | 22 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 257 | 472 | -215 | 5 | ||||||||||
| Home | Score | Away | Match Information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=17% | Date and Time | width=17% | Venue | width=11% | Referee | width=7% | Crowd | ||
| Semi-finals | |||||||||
| align=left | St. George | 17–10 | align=left | Eastern Suburbs Roosters | 31 August 1968 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Col Pearce | 49,747 | |
| align=left | South Sydney | 15–23 | align=left | Manly-Warringah | 7 September 1968 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Col Pearce | 49,128 | |
| Preliminary Final | |||||||||
| align=left | South Sydney | 20–8 | align=left | St. George | 14 September 1968 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Col Pearce | 44,803 | |
| Grand Final | |||||||||
| align=left | Manly-Warringah | 9–13 | align=left | South Sydney | 21 September 1968 | Sydney Cricket Ground | Col Pearce | 54,255 | |
| Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles | Position | South Sydney Rabbitohs |
|---|---|---|
| WG | 2. Brian James | |
| 3. Bob Honan | ||
| 4. Frank Stanton | CE | 4. Arthur Branighan |
| 6. Bob Fulton (c) | 6. Denis Pittard | |
| HB | 7. Bob Grant | |
| 13. Jim Morgan | ||
| 12. Elwyn Walters | ||
| 11. John O'Neill | ||
| SR | 19. John Sattler (c) | |
| 9. Bob Moses | ||
| 8. Ron Coote | ||
| Res. | ||
| Coach | Clive Churchill | |
The first-grade match began furiously with the toughening-up period resulting in four cautions by referee Pearce in the first four minutes. Ron Coote clashed with Bill Bradstreet and the opposing giants Hamilton and John O'Neill also measured up. Souths, with a strong breeze at its back, was the first to score when Michael Cleary intercepted a pass meant for Manly winger Les Hanigan and raced 80 yards to score. Simms punished Manly with a conversion and three successful penalty goals in the first half and at the break Souths led 11–2.
The Sea Eagles refused to lay down and mid-way through the second half second-rower John Morgan crashed over for a try which was converted by Bob Batty. Then a Bob Fulton field goal with fourteen minutes left brought Manly within reach. But despite the Manly fightback Souths was too resilient and hung on to win its second successive premiership and the club's 18th title.
South Sydney 13 (Tries: Cleary. Goals: Simms 5.)
Manly-Warringah 9 (Tries: Morgan. Goals: Batty 2. Fld Goals: Fulton 1.)
The following statistics are as of the conclusion of Round 22.Top 5 point scorers
| width=50 | Points | width=200 | Player | width=30 | Tries | width=30 | Goals | width=30 | Field Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 184 | Eric Simms | 0 | 65 | 27 | |||||
| 181 | Dennis Preston | 7 | 80 | 0 | |||||
| 167 | Terry Hughes | 7 | 67 | 6 | |||||
| 152 | Len Killeen | 8 | 64 | 0 | |||||
| 136 | Allan McKean | 0 | 67 | 1 |
| width=50 | Tries | width=200 | Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Stan Gorton | ||
| 13 | Les Hanigan | ||
| 12 | Mick Alchin | ||
| 11 | George Ruebner | ||
| 9 | Ron Coote | ||
| 9 | Bob Mara | ||
| 9 | Johnny Rhodes |
| width=50 | Goals | width=200 | Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | Dennis Preston | ||
| 67 | Allan McKean | ||
| 67 | Terry Hughes | ||
| 65 | Eric Simms | ||
| 64 | Len Killeen |